PALMIPES. 83 



R = 2 r (nearly). 



A small species with short wide arms ; they and the body pretty 

 thick. Ambulacral grooves rather narrow, fringed by a row of 

 spines arranged in triplets at the sides of the ossicles. The whole 

 of the lower surface is covered with short, sharp, slender spines, 

 ordinarily arranged in pairs; at the margin the spines are shorter, 

 and they are still shorter on the dorsal surface, over which they are 

 scattered with less regularity. The madreporite is rather nearer 

 the centre than the margin, is not at all prominent, irregular, often 

 triangular in form. Two spines are often so arranged in relation to 

 one another as to simulate a pedicellaria. 



Colour " greenish yellow, sometimes tinged with red, and some- 

 times brownish ; " dark brown to yellowish when dry, or almost 

 white, as it is also when in spirit. Four- or six-rayed forms not 

 uncommon. 



Distribution. Eastern side of tropical and temperate North At- 

 lantic, English Channel and Irish Sea ; Mediterranean. 0-35 fms. 



D. Robertson, Esq. 

 R. Irish Acad. 

 Belfast Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 Belfast Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 Belfast Nat. Hist. Soc. 



W. P. Cocks, Esq. 

 Dr. Leach. 



Prof. Bell. 

 Dr. Giiuther. 



2. PALMIPES 



Anseropoda (vox hybr.), Nardo, Ixis, 1834, col. 716. 



Palmipes, Ag. Mem. Soc. Neuchdt. i. (1836) p. 192; Forbes, Mem. 

 Wem. Soc. viii. (1839) p. 119; Gray, Ann. § Mag. vi. (1840) 

 p. 288; Forbes, Brit. Star/. (1840) p. il6; Gray, Brit. Bad. (1848) 

 p. 21 ; Norm. Ann. §• Mag. xvi. (1865) p. 120; Viguier, Arch. Zoo/. 

 vii. (1878) p. 212 ; Slaclen, Chall. Bep. Ast. p. 376 ; Bell, Ann. $ 

 Mag. vii. (1891) pp. 234 & 465 ; Norman, op. cit. p. 384. 



Asteriscus (pars), M. Tr. Sgst. Ast. (1842) p. 39. 



An Asterinid in which the marginal plates are not larger than 

 the others ; the papulae are confined to the radial portions of the 

 upper surface, the skeletal plates of which are thin, scale-like, and 

 provided with tufts of spiuelets ; the papulas are in a single row 



g2 



